Month: August 2009

Video Professor Free?

On By Michel McDonaldIn ScamsLeave a comment

I see these commercials all the time for Video Professor where the “chairman” talks about how he gives away his lessons on CD for free.  Well, I hate to disillusion anybody but it ain’t free.

I ordered my “free” lesson and when it finally came in the mail I saw the fine print.  It’s free for a certain amount of time.  After that specific time is up they automatically charge your credit card $70.

I got the Frontpage lessons because I thought I was getting it for free for the cost of shipping.  I saw the warning and immediately called the number and told them I am sending it back the next day as soon as I wake up lol.  There is no way I am rich enough to be able to afford $70 for lessons for a program that I’ve been using since 1997 that I am clearly able to use without any of their lessons.  I just thought that they would be able to tell me something I didn’t know but every lesson in there was something I am aware of lol.

It would be one thing if they charged $20 plus shipping for a lesson, that’s at least reasonable but $70 that’s a bit much.  Is it false advertising that they say it’s free then you find out it’s $70?  I think it is.

Ok I have to admit something.  This happened like 2 years ago lol.  I just saw the commercial and it jogged my memory and so I thought I would blog about it lol.

The Bakersfield Californian Tabloid

On By Michel McDonaldIn NewsLeave a comment

Bakersfield, CA is going to change their newspaper to the size of the tabloid.  It’s already only a few pages per section so I guess they are going to just change it completely so it’s like a magazine.  I guess nothing good goes on in this town that they just don’t have anything to report.

The Bakersfield Californian will change to a tabloid-size product on Monday through Friday starting on Monday, Aug. 17. One of its many benefits is a unique new Classifieds section complete with color-coded sections for ease of use.

That is a quote from their Facebook page.  You know they charge .80 cents for their paper and then the store charges you .05 cents on top of that.  So we pay .85 cents for the newspaper that takes Darrin 10 minutes to read lol.  It’s kind of a rip off if you ask me.  I personally don’t ever read the newspaper, why should I when I can just watch the news you know?  I don’t care about the classifieds, cartoons, obituaries etc.

What I want them to do is put their newspaper on the Kindle because I really want an excuse to get a Kindle lol so maybe if it were kindlized I might buy a Kindle.  I already asked them and they said that they have a digital version but in a PC only program.

I bet you anything if they change to tabloid sized newspaper the price will go up again.

Roast of Joan Rivers

On By Michel McDonaldIn Humor, TVLeave a comment

I do love those Comedy Central Roasts.  They are so funny and dirty.  I remember watching them in the 70’s and I don’t remember them cussing but they were dirty.

The panel or they call it Dais were so so.  I think it was about 50/50.  One of the people on there I’ve never heard of, Whitney Cummings.  Who the hell is she?  I appreciate a good gay joke but come on, this ho bag made a crack about Mario Cantone having AIDS and about him being a child molester.  Sorry but it’s not funny.  And they kept making these fried chicken and watermelon jokes about Robin Quivers.  Also not funny.

They filmed this in July 2009 which was around the time that 4 stars passed away, one of them being David Caradine.  I think there were about 3 jokes about him which I think was too soon for that.  Yes it was funny but still too soon.

Also TV Guide said that Lily Tomlin was going to be in it but she wasn’t.  That was disappointing because I love her and I would’ve loved to see her make fun of the panel.

I think the best moment in this show was the beginning when Joan came out onto the stage with 6 children with price tags on them and she said that Brad and Angelina were having a garage sale lol.

The only 2 comedians that I liked on there were Kathy Griffin and Jeffrey Ross.  Besides the terrible fried chicken joke to Robin he was pretty good.  He was probably the best one out of them all of course besides Kathy Griffin and of course besides Joan Rivers at the very end.  She did pretty good too.

Hart Park Trip Postponed

On By Michel McDonaldIn Bike, ExerciseLeave a comment

I was planning on riding my bicycle all the way from China Grade Loop to Hart Park and video tape the trip as part 3 of my BikeCam series.  However, due to my shoulder injury I will have to postpone that trip.  I am very disappointed but I have to do what’s best for my body.

I haven’t been on the bicycle in weeks and it really is upsetting to me because I’m gaining weight, most of the weight I worked so hard to get rid of.  I went through weeks of plateau and frustration just to undo all of that.

I will eventually get back on the bike and I will get right back to my route and some day get all the way to Hart Park.  I just know it.

True Blood Beverage

On By Michel McDonaldIn TVLeave a comment

It’s happening.  The show True Blood on HBO is coming out with an actual beverage that you can buy.  Although it has no actual blood in it but it is an orange soda.

trublood

Downside is that it only comes in a 4 pack and the price is outrageous.  The asking price for this 4 pack is $16 plus shipping charge of $9.  I’m not sure if it’s going to be in stores or not but at that price I probably won’t buy it.  They need to come down just a LOT before I will buy it.  I can’t see paying $16 for a 4 pack when I can just buy a 2 liter bottle of Fanta and probably get the same exact taste.  After all, with TruBlood you are paying for the name, not the flavor.

At that price I would rather it did have blood inside of it.

Snitch On Your Mom

On By Michel McDonaldIn Patriotic, PoliticalLeave a comment

I don’t go to the white house website.  It’s not my number one priority for my daily browsing habits but I guess that if I did I would’ve seen a blog asking for “American’s” to turn in anyone who sends you email or anyone talking in your home about health care.  Here is a direct quote from Fox News.

The White House is under fire for a blog post asking supporters to send “fishy” information received through rumors, chain e-mails and casual conversations to a White House e-mail address, flag@whitehouse.gov.

Conservatives have pounced on the request, accusing the White House of acting Orwellian.

“If you get an e-mail from your neighbor and it doesn’t sound right, send it to the White House?”said Sen. John Barasso, R-Wyo. ” People, I think all across America are going to say is this 1984? What is happening here? Is big brother watching?”

Radio host Rush Limbaugh accused the White House of using heavy-handed tactics.

“They’re looking for tattletales,”he said. “They’re looking for snitches. They’re looking for informants.”

I don’t know what they are looking for but I think that it’s starting to look like communism.  It said in the top paragraph chain emails and casual conversation.  So what if I’m sitting in a room talking to my cousin and he starts bashing health care I’m supposed to what, get on my cell phone and start sending an email to the white house?  I’m supposed to snitch on my cousin as he’s talking then just tell him I’m checking the weather?

Uh, I don’t think so.  Ain’t happenin big bro.  That reminds me of the tv series in the 80’s called “V” which ABC is remaking and will air in 2010 about these aliens who come to earth and they say they come in peace and all they want is to borrow some of our water but what they really want is food… us.  How does that remind me?  Because the supporters of the aliens were informants and they were snitching on their mother, father, sisters, brothers, best friends.  Anyone who wasn’t supportive of the aliens they turned them in.  I’m not turning anyone in so the president can eat them.

I mean what are they going to do to the person that I’m asked to snitch on?  Are they going to put them in prison and clog up the courts and use more tax dollars to warehouse and feed these people that I snitch on?  Yeah, ain’t happenin’.  First of all I would never snitch on anybody no matter how big of a supporter I am which I’m not but if I did have my nose 3 inches up Obamas ass I still wouldn’t snitch on anybody.  That’s stupid for them to even ask gawd.

I found the blog that Newsmax copied and pasted to their email to me.

“There is a lot of disinformation about health insurance reform out there, spanning from control of personal finances to end of life care. These rumors often travel just below the surface via chain emails or through casual conversation. Since we can’t keep track of all of them here at the White House, we’re 6asking for your help. If you get an email or see something on the web about health insurance reform that seems fishy, send it to flag@whitehouse.gov.”

Boycotting The Bahamas

On By Michel McDonaldIn Anti-Gay, BoycottLeave a comment

Last night HBO had the Rosie Cruise documentary called All Aboard.  I don’t know the exact title.  Anyway, I watched it and I was close to tears through most of it because I was just so happy for all of those gay families that they could have kids, this one family was these 2 gay men with 5 kids.  I just thought that was so great.

The main reason I was close to tears and in some cases I was tearing is because when my mom confronted me about being gay when I was 17 just before she kicked me out of the house, she told me “Do me a favor, don’t ever have kids”.  What a cruel thing to say.  It touched my heart that these people are able to have children and their teenage kids stand up for their parents and they don’t let anyone give them shit.

The cruise started out in New York and they went all the way to the Bahamas and back.  When they got to Key West Florida, not only did they have out the welcome mat but they had a parade for them.  But as soon as they got to the Bahamas they were met by protesters from the Bahama churches.

Now I realize that those protesters do not represent the whole of the Bahamas but seeing that turnout turns me off.  I will never ever in my life go to the Bahamas knowing there are that many homophobes running around allowed to breed.  And I would expect that anyone who is gay would boycott this place.

There are lots of other places you can go like Jamaica or heck, Florida.  Who really needs to go to the Bahamas that bad when we have beaches in our own country.  Heck I would go to Venice Beach over going to the Bahamas any day.  At least in Venice Beach you got muscle men working out in full view of everyone and best of all you are keeping your money local.

My cousin got married in the Bahamas the day before my birthday and I was invited to go but I didn’t have the money.  I wanted to go, I would’ve loved to spend my birthday in the Bahamas but I’m glad now that I didn’t go because I was able to see their true colors thanks to the Rosie cruise.

My Pez Collection

On By Michel McDonaldIn Daily Blog1 Comment

It was time to dust off all of my pez dispensers.  They collect a lot of dust sitting on the shelf that I made for them and I don’t clean them very often because it’s such a job but they desperately needed to be cleaned lol.  While I was cleaning the dust off I decided to take pictures of them in all of their collections.

There are a couple collections that I wasn’t quite sure about like the first one with all the bugs.  I’m not sure what those are from.  I think 2 of them are from Bee movie but then some are from Bugs, I don’t know.  They are all bugs so I just added them together lol.  Then there are the Madagascar ones, I accidentally added a panda to it not knowing where it belongs but apparently that collection only has 3, not 4.  But I don’t care lol.

The very last picture is all of them on the shelf (except for the boxes and the petz, those are on another shelf).  I made that shelf by the way out of very very thin wood that I found at Home Depot when we were still living in Hollywood.  It started out as a smaller shelf but then I kept adding to it so I had to buy more wood and made another shelf.  I’m getting to the point where I think I’m gonna need to plan a bigger shelf lol.

I wanted to compile all of these pictures into a video and put on YouTube but I looked at other peoples videos and they all put mine to shame so I thought that they just deserved a blog post at least lol.











bat

Edit 8/28/09: I went to Walgreens today and they already have the Halloween stuff in their seasonal aisle so I went to look at the Pez dispensers and they have the new glow in the dark Bat Pez.  I added the picture above next to the pez dispenser collection rack.  Click on it to see full size.

The Contortionist Bicycle

On By Michel McDonaldIn Bike, TechLeave a comment

I have seen folding bikes before but this thing is amazing.  It folds up to the height of the wheels and is very compact.  You can take it to work with you and not even worry about locking it up, you can just hide it under your desk or if you don’t have a desk, lock it up in the break room.  You could probably even lock it up outside in the parking lot to one of the handicapped signs.  3 companies are already looking to crank out thousands of copies of this bicycle and charge maybe less than $700 each.

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9_XEgGQBkQ

Cracka Please

On By Michel McDonaldIn Daily BlogLeave a comment

Why is it ok now for African-American people to call white people cracker all the time?  I want to know why this is accepted!  That is not a compliment.  They are calling white people cracker just like white people called them another word that begins with a N.

I’ve never called a “black” person a name in my entire life.  Nor have I ever called a Mexican person or a Jewish person or an Indian (not native American but they count too) or an Irish person any race a derogatory name.  In my ENTIRE life.

The reason I’m blogging on this subject is because I went to the grocery store this evening to buy some dinner.  I was standing at the express lane check stand and these 2 women got in line behind me.  One mentioned that she forgot the cracka’s and the other said oh I hate cracka’s.  They said the word cracka (not cracker) about 15 or 20 times and they didn’t just say the word cracker, they said the word cracka with attitude, they accentuated the word as if they weren’t really talking about food.  It just sounded very racial to me.

I’m not a paranoid person either but it just sounded funny that they said it that many times you know?

I understand that a lot of black people are angry.  I get that.  I really do understand because what their ancestors went through is enough to make anybody angry but come on, it was hundreds of years ago.  Lincoln freed the slaves get over it.  Yes black people were treated very poorly even in the 1950’s and 60’s.  They weren’t even allowed to marry white people in the 70’s and I’m sorry for their loss of freedoms.  But what they don’t understand is that, I wasn’t around during the time of their oppression.

My family wasn’t even in this country during slavery times so I have nothing to do with what their ancestors went through.  My mother’s side was in Ireland and Scotland and my father’s side was in Germany.  I have nothing to apologize for because my blood didn’t spill their blood.  My blood line wasn’t racist against them either so back off.

If anything, I’m the one being oppressed now, not just by the African-Americans but by all of America especially California because the government in California is telling me that I cannot get married so take that.  Black people weren’t allowed to marry white people until the 70’s well guess what, I can’t get married either in 2009.

It’s the year 2009, we are halfway to 2010.  Don’t you think it’s time for racism and sexual discrimination to end?  How about all discrimination?  Hows about we make a deal kay?  I won’t call you any names (as I haven’t my entire life) and you don’t call me a cracka anymore kay?  Thanks.